“Ahh you killed me!” Tyler cried out as he threw his Nintendo control in the air and watched it land with a light thud on the carpet at his feet.
“Come on! You killed me the last three games!” Justin exclaimed as he turned to his young friend with a satisfied smile. “Paybacks suck huh?”
“Rematch!” Tyler exclaimed as he leaned forward and hit the reset button on the old Nintendo.
As Justin watched the boy get the game ready to restart he stared at the Nintendo with wonder. “Wow, I haven’t seen one of those in years! I didn’t even know they were still around.”
“Yeah well this was donated, we could never afford to buy new video games all the time. Those new machines cost a lot of money.”
Justin thought about the new Playstation 2 sitting in his living room along with all the other new machines. He kept forgetting that these kids didn’t have money for stuff like that.
After the next game where Tyler had beaten Justin, the two decided to go outside. They walked along the stepping-stones that lead away from the play area towards a quieter, more secluded part of the yard. Justin sat down and Tyler took a spot on the grass next to him.
“Hey have you ever watched the clouds before?” Tyler asked Justin as he laid back and stared up at the pale blue, cloud spotted sky.
“What do you mean?” Justin asked as he imitated the boy and lay down as well. He cringed and raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun above.
“Have you ever just looked at the clouds? If you look at them long enough they start to look like shapes,” Tyler explained to him.
“I’ve never really tried it.” He looked at the sky and watched the clouds slowly drift by. “Oh hey, look at that one,” Justin said while extending his hand up and pointing to one to the left. “It looks like the empire state building.”
A moment later Tyler responded, “Hey you’re right!” Tyler continued to look around and a moment later exclaimed “Wow that one looks like a Dodge Viper!”
Justin stared quizzically at the cloud before shaking his head slightly. “I just don’t see it.”
Tyler laughed at his friend. “Oh come on, see, there is the hood and that is the back end of it,” he said as his finger painted a picture of the sports car in the air.
“Oh, I kind of see it now. Wow!”
The two continued to point out shapes in the clouds for a while. Silence fell between the two. Justin turned his head to the right to look at the little boy lying next to him. “So, who taught you how to do this?”
Tyler sat quietly for a moment before responding. “No one really taught me. It’s just something I do when I want to escape from the world I guess.”
“Do you do this a lot?”
“Not so much anymore. I used to do it when I was at different foster family’s houses.”
“What about them made you want to escape from the world?” Justin asked as he rolled over onto his stomach and propped his chin up on his hands to look at the little boy.
“Well…”
“Hey Tyler, can you come here for a minute?” They heard Mary call from the doorway.
Tyler quickly jumped up to his feet and muttered, “I’ll be right back,” before he sprinted up to the porch to meet Mary.
Justin rolled back over onto his back and stared up thoughtfully. He was just starting to realize all that Tyler had been through. He really didn’t know too many details but it was very clear that life was not all roses for his new friend. ‘I am not going to be another one to disappoint him,’ Justin told himself firmly as he began to stand up when he heard Tyler running toward him.
“Hey!” The little boy exclaimed with a smile as he plopped back down on the grass next to Justin.
“Hey, so what did Mary want?” Justin asked as he took his place on the ground again.
“Oh, she just wanted me to pick up the Nintendo stuff and put it away,” Tyler responded with a roll of his green eyes.
“Sorry man!” Justin said as his cheeks turned pink.
“No biggie,” Tyler laughed as he noticed the young man’s embarrassment. The little boy lied back down on his back and resumed staring at the clouds. Silence fell over the two and Tyler began to hum as he stared up at the clouds. Not realizing what was happening, Justin began to rock his head a little.
Justin continued to listen to the little boy sing an old 60’s song and asked, “where’d you learn such an old song from?”
“That’s the kind of music Mary plays for us around the house. Besides, I never really know what the current music is,” he explained with a shrug.
“You know, you’re pretty good,” Justin told him.
“Oh yeah,” Tyler laughed. “What would you know about it?”
“You’d be surprised just how much I know about it,” Justin said with a smirk on his face that Tyler couldn’t see.
“What are you doing?!” JC exclaimed as he grabbed the pen out of Chris’s hand. The older man stared up at his bandmate like he had lost his mind.
“Labeling the track,” Chris replied as he widened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows.
“Do you want this to show up on the Internet, or are you just a moron?” JC asked with wide eyes.
Chris let his facial expression drop into a dumbfounded one as he whispered, “Oh.” JC rolled his eyes. “I never thought of that!” Chris exclaimed in his own defense.
“Hey guys!” Justin interrupted the conversation. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. He hadn’t spoken one word since they began recording earlier that morning. In fact, he had even refused to sing a few times. The young man has just silently sat there thinking about whatever was on his mind the whole day. The guys had assumed it had something to do with his community service. If Justin was worried about something, it seemed to be about Tyler lately. “Do you have any video games that you don’t want anymore?”
“A ton,” Lance replied with an air of confusion in his voice. “Why?”
“Well, when I was with Tyler the other day, I noticed all they had was this old Nintendo. So, I was gonna give them my old Sega and Playstation. I was hoping maybe you guys could give them some of the games you didn’t want anymore,” Justin explained while looking around the room at his friends’ shocked faces. “Why are you all staring at me?”
“Cuz you actually came up with a good idea, J!” Chris exclaimed. “And we thought the world would have to come to an end before you would be willing to give up your precious video games,” the older man laughed.
Justin chuckled. “Yeah, well. What can I say?” he smiled at everyone in the room. “So, are you guys willing to part with them? Not the ones that you still use. Just the ones that have been sitting around that you haven’t touched in months.”
“I’ll bring some over tomorrow,” Joey said, and the rest of the group nodded in agreement.
Justin stood in front of the big white house with two boxes in his hands. One contained a few of his old video game systems and the other held the games for them. Shifting the weight, he knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. A second later, the door swung open. Justin had to laugh when he didn’t see anyone over the boxes. He realized it must have been one of the kids and tried to look around the square pieces of white cardboard that he held in his hands.
“Justin!” a little boy exclaimed in shock. The young man smiled when his eyes fell upon Tyler. “Wait,” he said confused. “You’re not suppose to be here today.”
Justin chuckled. “I know,” he said. “I have something for Mary,” he explained while kneeling down a bit.
“Is that it?” Tyler asked as he tried to look inside the boxes. Justin laughed and swung them out of his view.
“Yes,” he said with an evil grin on his face. “Do you know where Mary is?”
“What’s in there?” the little boy asked as he walked around to where Justin had swung the boxes too. The singer laughed as he stood up. “Hey!” Tyler exclaimed as he jumped up, still trying to get a peak at what was inside the boxes.
“Hello Justin!” a voice called from the top of the stairs. The young man looked up and smiled at Mary.
“Hi Mary!” he called back to her.
“We weren’t expecting to see you today,” the woman said as she walked down the stairs.
“I know,” Justin smiled. “I was wondering if I could talk to you for a second.”
“Sure,” Mary said. “Come with me to the kitchen.”
Justin nodded and followed the older woman through the house. She passed through the doors that lead to the kitchen and turned around and smiled. “What can I do for you?” she asked the young man.
“Well, the guys and I wanted the kids to have these,” Justin said with a smile as he sat the boxes down on a counter and opened them. Mary’s jaw dropped to the floor when she saw the video games inside.
“Wow,” she whispered. Justin chuckled at the shocked expression on her face. “Are you sure about this?” she asked him.
“Oh yeah,” he replied. “To tell the truth, these are all old. We never even use them anymore. So, we figured why not?”
“Wow,” Mary said again. “Justin, thank you. Tyler and the rest of the kids will surely appreciate it.”
Justin smiled. “It’s no problem, Mary. I just wanted to give them to you first to make sure you didn’t mind the kids having them.”
The woman laughed. “Are you kidding?! With these in the house, I might actually get some peace!” she joked.
“Well, I have to get to the studio,” Justin said while backing away to make his exit.
“Justin, thank you so much. I’ll make sure Tyler knows these came from you,” Mary smiled at him.
Justin shrugged. “Whatever,” he replied and turned and walked out the door.
Tyler kicked a pile of dirt in the grass with the toe of his shoe. The video games Justin had donated were great, but it was a nice day and he wanted to be outside. The little boy flattened out the dirt and then drew a smiley face in it. He stepped back and examined his artwork and a smile played across his lips.
“Hey kid,” he suddenly heard. He looked up from his daze to see a man standing next to the fence of the children’s home. He narrowed his eyes as he looked the man up and down. The sandy-haired man was wearing a navy T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
“Come here a sec,” the man said and motioned for Tyler to walk to the fence. Tyler stood where he was for a second before deciding the man looked harmless enough.
“Yeah?” Tyler said when he was finally standing a couple feet from the man, the iron fence separating the two.
“I just want to ask you a question or two, is that alright?” The man asked. He flashed a bright smile to the little boy, his eyes crinkling pleasantly in the corners.
“Whatever,” Tyler replied with a shrug. He looked at the man curiously.
“So, how does it feel to work with a member of Nsync?” The man asked.
Tyler looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Uh, mister I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He spun around on his heel and began to walk away when the man called out again.
“I’m talking about Justin Timberlake. What’s it like having him around?”
Tyler stopped and turned around. A smile lit up his face. “Oh you’re talking about Justin? He’s pretty cool. I like having him around.” A moment later he got a confused look again. “What did you mean by Nsync?”
“Nsync is only one of the hottest pop groups around. You mean to tell me you didn’t know he was in it?” The man looked at him with disbelief. When Tyler hadn’t answered the man’s eyes grew wide. “You really didn’t know did you?” The man shook his head in disbelief.
Tyler’s face grew crimson with anger as he processed what he’d just learned. All this time Justin had lied to him. “Um, I’ve gotta go!” Tyler said with tears burning his eyes. He turned around before the man could see and ran back up to the house.
The man standing outside the fence pulled out a pad of paper from his back pocket and quickly began to scrawl down notes as the little boy disappeared into the orphanage.
“So how’s the volunteer thing going?” Chris asked with a bright smile on his face as soon as he saw Justin walk into the studio the next morning.
Justin looked up and smiled at him. “It’s going good Chris. You really helped. Thanks.”
“As per usual,” Chris grinned at his younger bandmate.
“Don’t let it get to your head,” Justin yelled at the older man as he threw his coat on a chair.
JC looked over at Justin from his place by the soundboard and grinned at the younger man. “Does this mean we won’t be hearing from your other personality Mr. Grinch for a while?” he asked jokingly while he adjusted a few knobs.
“Not for a while,” Justin laughed.
“Awe man!” Joey whined. “I’m gonna miss that guy. It was so nice having him around. He was so much easier to work with.”
“Bite me,” Justin joked. “So, I was thinking…” Justin began but was cut off when Chris rushed over to him and turned him around.
“The youngen was thinking!” Chris exclaimed worriedly as he examined the young man. “Did you hurt yourself?!” he asked while leaning down to examine Justin’s butt.
“Hey!” Justin cried as he jumped away from Chris. “That’s my ars! It’s my private property.”
“Yeah,” JC said with a chuckle. “You’re property and every adolescent girl’s dream at night.”
A huge smile appeared on Justin’s face. “Well, there’s nothing I can do about that,” he said with an evil grin as he shrugged his shoulders .
“You could try not shaking it so much,” Joey commented.
“And you could try not breathing so much,” Justin countered with a roll of his eyes.
“You wanna try that again,” JC said into the microphone sitting in front of him. Lance, who was in the recording booth, nodded and took a deep breath as the track started again.
“What was wrong with that?” Chris asked. “It sounded good to me.”
“It was good,” JC agreed. “I just want another take of it. I think I messed it up by adding too much treble.”
“JC messed up!” Chris exclaimed in mock shock.
The rest of the guys laughed as JC’s face turned a slight shade of pink.
“Careful, C,” Joey warned. “One more episode like that and we’ll take the soundboard away.”
“Ha ha,” JC said while never taking his eyes off the soundboard.
A second later, the door to the studio swung open and Jeff, one of their many publicists, stood on the other side of it. He was probably around thirty years old with brown hair and brown eyes. The man was dressed in a suit and had a very worried look on his face.
“Do you guys have a second?” he asked while sticking his head slightly into the room.
The room was silent for a second as Lance sang the last note in the song. “Great job, that’ll do it,” JC said into the microphone. Lance nodded, took off his headphones, and made his way out of the recording booth. “Perfect timing, Jeff,” JC smiled while turning around. “What can we do for you?”
“I’d like to see all of you in my office,” Jeff said. With that, the man turned and walked out the door. The members of Nsync stood completely still, looking around the room questioningly at one another. They knew something was not right, Jeff was usually one of the more friendly people they worked with. None of them could think of anything they could have possibly done wrong. They all shrugged at each other and filed out of the room. The group followed Jeff down the hall to a small office at the other end of it. They piled into Jeff’s office and each took a seat.
“Who’s been talking to reporters?” Jeff asked while narrowing his eyes and looking around at them.
“Huh?” Chris asked. “No one’s been talking to reporters. We know the rules,” he said with an air of confusion in his voice.
“Well somebody has been talking to them. If you hadn’t, they wouldn’t have this,” Jeff said as he threw down an issue of a tabloid magazine. The guys all leaned forward and red the headline on the front line of the page. It read “The Truth Behind Drunk, Child-bashing Pop Star Justin Timberlake” and underneath the headline was a picture of Justin stepping into his car and glaring at the camera. “The article is on page four,” Jeff informed them.
The guys crowded around as JC picked up the magazine and flipped to page four to read the article. They scanned it quickly.
“Last month Justin Timberlake was arrested in downtown Orlando for driving while intoxicated. Timberlake’s blood alcohol level was an astounding 1.2 when he was finally apprehended…When given the choice of roadside work or community service at a local orphanage Timberlake told the judge, “I guess I’ll work at the orphanage. Those pathetic little brats need someone like me around.”
We caught up with him last week when he was out with one of the children and when asked about the young boy he was with Justin told us, “He’s the most obnoxious kid I’ve ever met! He seems to think the world owes him something. I can’t wait for my sentence to be up. As soon as it is, I’m outa there!”…
“So, you guys want to start talking?” Jeff asked as he made eye contact with each one of them. “Who’s responsible for this?”
“What! Are you serious! This has got to be a joke! I’d never say anything like that about Tyler or the community service!” Justin exclaimed with shock.
“Justin, are you blind? That is the least of our worries! Did you some how miss that little line that says you were driving while intoxicated?” Jeff exclaimed, his voice rising. “Our main concern is keeping your image clean! If parents and little girls think you’re a drunk your image is going to go down the drain!”
“I’ve got to go talk to Tyler before this comes out! I have to explain everything. He doesn’t even know I’m in Nsync!” He exclaimed as he pushed his chair back getting ready to go talk to the boy.
“Sit down Justin,” Jeff boomed. “That is not our priority, we need to decide what we’re going to do about this,” Jeff said sternly.
“Fine. When is this going out?” Justin asked, his eyes flashed up towards Jeff angrily as he sat back down. He had just become friends with Tyler. There was no telling what an article like this would do to that.
“Any day,” Jeff said.
“Is there any way to stop it?!” Justin asked as his eyes continued to dance across the page.
“Unfortunately no,” Jeff replied. “They have the right to print whatever they want. There are ethics that most journalists try to uphold, but this is a tabloid and they don’t play by the rules.” The man’s tone was serious and his look was grim. From Jeff’s attitude, the guys could tell that the situation was not good. “So, I’ll ask again. Who was talking to reporters?”
“No one,” JC said as he looked around at his bandmates with wide eyes. “We swear. Did any of you talk to anyone?”
A chorus of no’s rang throughout the room.
“I mean. We didn’t even talk to the reporter at the amusement park,” Chris commented as a way of showing how responsible they had all been.
“Shit!” Justin shouted as he squeezed his eyes and fists shut and jerked his head.
“What?” everyone asked as they turned to him.
The young man winced as he looked around the room and tried to give everyone an innocent smile.
“You didn’t?!” Chris exclaimed.
“He saw me with Tyler!” Justin shouted in his own defense. “What was I supposed to do?! The guy thought Tyler was Chris’ son! If I hadn’t said anything, we would be reading an article about Chris’ illegitimate child!”
“We would have been reading an article about Chris’ illegitimate child that we could have easily proved incorrect. In your case they took bits of truth and weaved it with lies. This story is going to be much harder to prove false! If you hadn’t told them anything they wouldn’t have come up with this. How many times do I have to tell you? You DON’T talk to reporters, EVER!”
Justin groaned as he suddenly felt a heavy weight on his shoulders. “What are we gonna do?” he asked while looking around the room.
“WE are not going to do anything,” Jeff replied. “YOU are gonna hold a press conference, and YOU are gonna straighten this out. The only question is do you do it before this issue hits the stands or after.”
“Before,” was the unanimous answer from the group. Well, unanimous except for Justin. He was more worried about Tyler. What the hell was going to happen to him once the article hit the press? People would want to meet with him and talk to him. He would be the next biggest scoop.
“What about the little boy?” Justin asked. “I need to go explain things to him. Shouldn’t someone prepare him for what’s about to happen?”
Jeff shook his head. “That’s not our priority here. Our priority is keeping your reputation clear.”
“Jeff!” Justin shouted in shock.
“Would you like to read that quote again?!” Jeff yelled as he walked over to the group and picked the paper off JC’s lap. “It’s says Justin Timberlake was arrested for possession of alcohol!” Jeff continued to shout as he pointed to the line he was referring to. “Did you have alcohol in your hands Justin?! Did you even buy a beer that night?!”
“No,” the young man muttered as he slumped deeper into his seat and crossed his arms across his chest.
“Well, that’s what everyone who reads this article is going to think!” Jeff continued. “Unless, you clear it up! That’s our priority! Clearing up the misinterpretation! This little boy comes second to that! Do you understand?!”
“Yeah. I got it,” Justin muttered.
“The rest of you,” Jeff said while turning to the rest of the group. “If anyone approaches you about this – and I mean anyone – you say no comment. Don’t answer yes or no questions. Don’t try to clear it up. You say no comment and walk away. I don’t want to hear any variations of that. All I want to hear is no comment. You got it?”
The guys all nodded their heads yes.
“Now,” Jeff said turning to Justin. “The paper said they wouldn’t print this for a day or two, but they are under no obligation to stick to that promise. I think we should call a press conference immediately.”
All Justin could do was nod. He felt trapped in a bad dream. He knew what Nsync’s priority was, to keep a good image. But those priorities didn’t match his own. He thought to himself, ‘I could care less that they wrote I was driving drunk. Well, not care less, but that’s less important than the so-called quotes the reporter created. I never said anything like that about the community service or Tyler!’ As he sat there he felt the blood drain from his face when he realized that he and Tyler’s friendship was so new and so fragile that something this big could tear it to shreds.
He’d never realized that Tyler’s friendship had come to mean so much to him. ‘I guess it’s true, you never realize how important someone is until you’re about to lose them,’ he thought bitterly.
Justin glanced out at the sea of reporters that had come to attend the press conference they’d called that morning. There was a buzz of talk that filled the room as to what the conference could possibly be about. Justin slowly stepped out from behind the curtain on the side and walked up to the podium followed by his bandmates. The crowd hushed as he stepped up to the microphone.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming this afternoon. I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve called you all here today,” he paused for a moment to try and swallow the lump that had formed in his throat.
“An article is going to hit magazine stands any day about me and I wanted to set the record straight to stop any rumors before they start.” He looked out at the small crowd in front of him. He had their complete attention.
“The article I’m referring to is about an arrest that happened last month. I normally wouldn’t have made this public, but I want to set the record straight,” he stressed again. “Last month I was with a friend. I was in the passenger seat and we were driving down the highway. We were pulled over and there was an open alcohol container in the car. I want to make sure you know that the driver of the car was 22 and neither one of us had been drinking. The officers tested our blood alcohol level and both came back negative.” The buzz he’d heard earlier returned to the room. He gently cleared his throat and continued. “The officer still decided to press charges since I was a minor with an open alcohol container in the car. The judge sentenced me to help out at a local children’s home for a couple months.”
“The article coming out has outlandish accusations of me driving drunk which is completely false. He also has some untrue quotes about the home I am working at and one of the children there.”
A woman reporter in the front row waved her hand in the air before asking, “Mr. Timberlake what do you think about the time you’ve spent working at the home?”
“It’s OK. I’m just trying to finish my sentence so I can move on. This is not a major part of my life and I am not going to let it interfere with my professional life, my career, or my obligations to Nsync,” he said as he repeated what Jeff had told him to say if such a question arose.
Another reporter quickly followed with another question, “Is there a special child there you work with?”
“No, there’s no one special that I work with. I just do what I’m told. I just want to do anything I can to help those poor homeless kids.” He smiled at his audience but inside his words were making him cringe. This was not what he wanted to say at all, but Jeff thought it would be best if Justin downplayed the whole community service and didn’t mention Tyler’s name. Jeff had told him it would save Tyler a lot of problems if he were left out of everything.
When the conference was finally coming to a close Justin finished, “Again I thank you all for coming. I trust that you all will print accurate information about this.” He flashed them a smile and gave them a wave as he and his bandmates filed off the stage.
When they were out of the sight of the reporters Jeff greeted them. “Good job Justin. It was exactly as we discussed.”
“Yeah, sure,” Justin replied. “Can I go now?” He was anxious to go talk to Tyler before he was hit with any of this. He wanted to be able to explain himself in person.
“Not yet, you still need to do several phone interviews,” Jeff responded as he grasped Justin’s arm and led him away. Justin looked over his shoulder at his friends and shrugged helplessly. Chris looked sympathetically back and tried to give Justin a reassuring smile. The young man simply rolled his eyes as he followed Jeff into another small stuffy room where he would answer tons of pre-rehearsed questions. ‘You’re fine,’ he thought. ‘Tyler’s too young to watch the news. You’ll get to talk to him before any reporter does.’
Tyler cautiously knocked on the door to Mary’s bedroom. He didn’t know what Justin’s secret was, but he was about to find out. He didn’t even know what Nsync was! Well, he knew they were a pop group, but that didn’t explain much at all.
Mary opened the door quickly and looked down at the young child standing in her doorway. The woman paused to take a breath before smiling at him. “What can I do for you, Tyler?” she asked sweetly while bending down to talk to the little boy.
“Can I ask you a question?” the little boy asked in a nervous tone.
Mary widened her smile as her heart jumped at his tone. She had heard that tone before. That was the ‘I just heard something ridiculous, can you clear it up’ tone, which usually meant someone had been talking about ‘grown-up activities’ in front of the child. ‘Justin better not be teaching him anything he doesn’t need to know yet,’ she thought. “Why of course, sweetie!” she exclaimed while standing up and opening the door wider so Tyler could walk inside. “You can ask me anything.”
Tyler slowly entered Mary’s bedroom, realizing this was the first time he had been inside of it. He noticed that she was usually very protective of this boundary, only letting a few of the older kids in it every now and then. Even most of them, Tyler had only seen enter the room once. The young boy stood in the center of the room and looked around, not really sure what to do. Mary had a mattress in the center of the room, and a dresser on the right side of the wall. A television sat on top of the dark wooden dresser. The TV set was on and a newscaster was reporting the daily weather, but the volume was extremely low.
“Have a seat,” Mary smiled as she motioned to her bed. The young man walked over to it and jumped on the queen size mattress. Mary cringed inwardly, horrified at what the action would to her covers, but she ultimately decided to let it go. “What did you want to talk about?” the woman asked while walking over to her bed and taking a seat next to Tyler.
“What’s Nsync?” the little boy asked, trying to sound nonchalant about it.
Mary’s breath caught in her throat. That was the question that she was not prepared to answer. It was actually the last thing in the world that she had expected to come out of Tyler’s mouth. She almost would have preferred the sex question. “How did you hear about Nsync?” the woman asked while turning her head to the side slightly and looking at Tyler out of the corner of her eyes with furrowed eyebrows.
The little boy shrugged. “Someone mentioned the name to me,” he admitted.
“Who?” Mary asked.
“Some guy,” Tyler replied. “It happened when I was out front.”
“You talked to a stranger?” Mary asked in a stern tone, letting the little boy know he was about to get in trouble for something that she had repeatedly told him not to do.
“He talked to me first!” Tyler exclaimed in his defense.
“It doesn’t matter,” the woman said. “You know the rules, Tyler. You’re not supposed to talk to strangers. You’re not going to be able to go out front by yourself for a week or two,” she informed him.
“Mary, that’s not fair!” the little boy exclaimed.
“I don’t care if you think it’s fair or not. I’ve had to talk to you about this before, and I told you the consequences of it before too. So, no going out front by yourself for at least a week. Maybe that will help you remember next time a stranger talks to you that you’re not supposed to talk to him,” she scolded.
“Fine,” Tyler said as scowled, folded his arms across his chest, and glared at the floor.
“Tyler, I’m not trying to be mean,” Mary said soothingly.
“You could have fooled me!” the little boy snapped, not bothering to look up at her. “Can I go?”
“You can leave whenever you want,” she replied.
“Bye,” Tyler muttered as he got up and stomped out the room, swinging the door closed behind him.
Normally such an outburst would have gotten the child in trouble, but Mary was just happy that he had forgotten about his first question. It was one that she just didn’t know how to answer. She had known something like this might happen, but she didn’t think it would come at such an inopportune time for Justin and Tyler. The woman sighed as she ran a hand through her hair, thankful that she had at least some time to come up with an answer. However, Mary’s thoughts were interrupted when she heard a knock on the door.
“Come in!” she called.
The door swung open to reveal a red faced Tyler with a pout on his face. “What’s Nsync?” he asked again.